The work of Harpreet Sareen, assistant professor of interaction and media design in Parsons’ School of Art, Media, and Technology, resembles science fiction. In his lab, he explores “cyber botany,” an unprecedented realm where technology
converges with nature to reveal wonders like robot-sunflower hybrids, furniture-producing greenhouses, and growable devices.
Sareen joined Parsons’ faculty in 2018 after working for groundbreaking organizations including the National University of Singapore, Linz-based Ars Electronica FutureLab, Microsoft Research, and Google’s Creative Lab and completing a
graduate degree in media arts and sciences at MIT. The resources of Parsons and the broader university have enabled him to continue cultivating new ideas at the intersection of material science, biology, and electronics. His work here
merges theory with real-world application in provocative ways.
Argus, one of Sareen’s ongoing experiments, is a perfect example of cyber botany enhancing the human experience—and health. The project was partly inspired by how weeds in a garden absorb heavy metals. “I was looking at mechanisms where
plants could determine whether water is polluted or not,” explains Sareen. By injecting nanosensors into plants, he has been able to create an organic monitor that detects contamination within two hours; if the augmented plant has
absorbed lead (toxic industrial waste metals), the leaf with nanosensors begins to glow in the dark. Argus has been prototyped and currently is in development. Sareen envisions its application near nuclear or waste management facilities
and says the biotechnology can be used in homes as well. Argus won a 2019 SXSW Interactive Innovation Award and recently received the Edison Gold Award (in the Clean Water Technology category) and an A’Design award in the category
of Cybernetics, Prosthesis, and Implant Design.
Sareen collaborates broadly in his research, maintaining affiliations with the University of Tokyo and MIT Media Lab. He acknowledges his investigations are a bit unconventional but believes in cyber botany’s potential for creating more
sustainable interfaces. “This research is vision-driven,” he says, “but pursuing technologies that can make nature more resilient, expressive, and functional will help us reevaluate the role of artificial systems in which we not only
depend on nature but also integrate and converge with it in a way that it becomes our future.”
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